In U.S. Pat. No. 6,000,897 of Desjarlais issued Dec. 14, 1999 is disclosed a machine for inserting a plastic coil into aligned holes at the edge of a book for binding of the book. Such coils are formed of a plastic filament which is wound into a helical coil. Coils of different diameters can be selected for different thicknesses of book with the diameters commonly available lying in the range 6 mm to 30 mm.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,982 issued Jul. 24, 2007 which corresponds to Canadian application Serial No: 2,429,874 filed May 27, 2003, entitled BOOKBINDING COIL INSERTION MACHINE is disclosed an improved arrangement of this type which includes a gauge for automatically setting the spacing of the platen from the drive roller in dependence on a measured diameter of the coil.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,731,468 issued Jun. 8, 2010 entitled BOOKBINDING COIL END CUTTING AND CRIMPING MACHINE is disclosed a machine for cutting and crimping the ends of a helical coil inserted into holes at an edge of a book to hold the coil in place and is adjustable to accommodate different diameters of coil. A guide member for centering the axis of the coil in a centering direction is adjustable to accommodate different diameter coils and for adjusting the location of the axis in an adjustment direction at right angles to the centering direction depending upon the diameter of the coil. A cutting device has a blade movable in a slot of an anvil to shear on one side and to bend on the other side to form a crimped end portion. The adjustment of the axis causes the cutting device to cut the end portion longer for larger coils. The cutting device is adjustable to rotate the anvil relative to the axis to accommodate different helix angles
In U.S. Pat. No. 8,287,205 issued Oct. 16, 2012 entitled METHOD FOR BINDING A BOOK WITH A HELICAL PLASTIC COIL is disclosed an arrangement in which a leading end of the helical plastic filament is fed into a first hole at a first end of the book and the coil is rotated about its axis such that the leading end is threaded through the holes by entering each of the holes until the coil is threaded through all of the holes. The leading end of the coil is sheared by an anvil and blade so as to define a leading apex and a leading surface inclined rearwardly from the leading apex along the filament and across the filament. The leading apex is arranged such that, as the leading end enters each of the holes in turn, the leading apex is located on the leading end of the filament at a position thereon facing away from the trailing end of the coil and spaced from the end of the hole facing the first end of the book.
The disclosures of the above patents are hereby incorporated herein by reference or may be referenced for further details of the machine not included herein.
All of these patents provide an arrangement for inserting the coil into the book which is automated and is thus generally more suitable for longer production runs where the cost of the machine can be justified.
In other lower cost situations such as in smaller offices or in low production runs it is common to use either manual insertion of the coil or to use a roller or belt drive system to assist in coil insertion where the operator holds the book in place at the drive system till the frictional contact between the coil and the drive moves the coil to the required location. Such devices do not include a cutting and crimping device since the complexity is not suitable for the low cost drive system.
In order to effect the cutting and crimping action, therefore, the operator can use a manual cutting tool in the form of a pair of specially designed pliers.
Previous devices have been provided for receiving the book and coil and for cutting and crimping the ends of the inserted coil. The operator holds the book in place and the device has a cutter device which is driven by suitable motive force such as pneumatics to effect the cutting action.
Typical machines are in coil size to the range 6 to 20 mm or 30 mm and cannot therefore operate with, or at least have difficulty in operating with, coils in the range 30 to 50 mm which are commonly available and these machines suffer from this clear and severe restriction.